The present invention relates to a mailer assembly and to the individual parts of the mailer which may be provided in intermediate form to an end user for final printing and assembly.
Many types of confidential information are transmitted through the mails in the form of messages, invoices, notices of bank account balances and/or interest income for tax purposes, and the like. Further, documents of value such as automobile titles and registrations, checks, money orders, other negotiable instruments, and the like are also transmitted through the mails. Previously, where it was desired that the information or the nature of the document itself was to remain hidden until received by the addressee, envelopes were used. However, the labor and additional expense of using envelopes to transmit such documents has led to the increasing use of post cards or sealed mailers. Such post cards or mailers may be preprinted with nonvariable information and then supplied to a customer who can apply variable information (such as dollar amounts, names, addresses, and the like) with his own automated printing equipment.
Post cards are useful for delivering short messages, are less expensive to mail, and are relatively simple to be printed on by automated equipment. However, post cards have not been suitable in the past for the delivery of confidential information because the printed message was easily read by persons other than the addressee.
Sealed mailers provide a greater degree of confidentiality because a cover sheet may be positioned over the confidential matter. However, such products have had drawbacks because of the ability of an unauthorized observer to "see through" the mailer by holding it up to a light source to discern confidential information printed on interior surfaces of the mailer. Also, some confidential documents (such as checks) of necessity require back printing which will be exposed when the confidential document forms the bottom sheet of a sealed mailer. Thus, for example, the appearance of an endorsement area with accompanying language on the back of a mailer immediately alerts one to the fact that the mailer contains a check or other negotiable instrument.
For some mailers, it is also desirable that the mailer construction include a provision for a return envelope so that the recipient can, for example, pay a bill by placing a check in a pre-addressed return envelope. While mailers which include return envelopes are commercially available, their construction complicates the manufacture and assembly of the mailers and may prevent the end user from easily applying variable information to the contents of the mailer.
Further, there has been an ever increasing use of nonimpact printers such as laser printers by users of mailers to apply variable information to the mailers. As most typical mailers include patterns of heat sealable adhesive on one or more surfaces thereof, such mailers cannot pass through the heated fuser rolls of a laser printer without being activated and causing jams in the printer.
Accordingly, the need still exists in the art for a mailer which has enhanced ability to shield confidential information from unauthorized view while still providing the issuer of the mailer the convenience and cost savings of using a mailer produced by automated equipment. There also remains a need for a mailer which can be manufactured and assembled simply to provide an integral return envelope as a part of the mailer. Yet further, there is a need in the art for a mailer construction which can be passed through a laser printer and yet still have a capability of being sealed after variable printed information has been applied.